Kimberley Walsh Announces Debut Solo Album, ‘Center Stage’

The good news: Girls Aloud‘s Kimberley Walsh is releasing a solo record in February!

The bad news: Musical theater.

Earlier this morning, a press release went out to announce that Kimberley will be releasing her debut solo record Center Stage (or Centre Stage, for British eyes) on Decca Records, complete with “interesting takes” on theater “classics.”

From the press release:

Kimberley started recording the album this summer in Stockholm, working with pop producers including Per Magnusson and David Kreuger. “One Day I’ll Fly Away” from Moulin Rouge was the first song recorded:

“I was in my absolute element recording it and really felt like I was discovering new tones to my voice and really pushing myself vocally. I loved every minute of recording this album I really felt like I was
going back to my roots.”

As any Aloud fan would know, Kimba’s maintained a well-documented love affair with theater (pronounced thee-ay-tuh) for, like, ever. Just last year, she was cast as Princess Fiona in Shrek: The Musical. She’s never been one to turn down a good show tune!

Obviously then, this is a major victory for those that are into ‘that sort of thing.’ (That sort of thing being anything remotely related to theater.) My issue? I’m not. At all. But it’s fine! I’d rather see Kimba making good on their dreams and doing what she truly wants to do than anything else.

(I mean, it hurts slightly that ‘what she truly wants to do’ doesn’t involve heading into a studio to create an icy collection of disco tunes produced by the Pet Shop Boys, Xenomania and Fred Falke, but it’s fine. Everything is fine.)

The album will be released on February 4, just ahead of the Aloud’s upcoming Ten: The Hits Tour in 2013. If I had to guess, she’ll probably bring one or two of those tunes on the road. And it will probably look a lot like this…

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at least when it flops she can have the excuse of it not being commercial.

simonseziam

SOOOO glad Kim is finally getting on with a solo album…I’m hoping this is the equivalent of DC’s Michelle Williams’ Gospel releases…so she’ll get bored with the “musical theatre” genre and embark on her own underrated “Unexpected”-like second/third album!!!